[14544] | 1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you |
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| 2 | see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is |
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| 3 | specially designed to be readable as is. |
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| 4 | |
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| 5 | =head1 NAME |
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| 6 | |
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| 7 | README.machten - Perl version 5 on Power MachTen systems |
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| 8 | |
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| 9 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
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| 10 | |
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| 11 | This document describes how to build Perl 5 on Power MachTen systems, |
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| 12 | and discusses a few wrinkles in the implementation. |
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| 13 | |
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| 14 | =head2 Compiling Perl 5 on MachTen |
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| 15 | |
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| 16 | To compile perl under MachTen 4.1.4 (and probably earlier versions): |
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| 17 | |
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| 18 | ./Configure -de |
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| 19 | make |
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| 20 | make test |
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| 21 | make install |
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| 22 | |
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| 23 | This builds and installs a statically-linked perl; MachTen's dynamic |
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| 24 | linking facilities are not adequate to support Perl's use of |
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| 25 | dynamically linked libraries. (See F<hints/machten.sh> for more |
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| 26 | information.) |
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| 27 | |
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| 28 | You should have at least 32 megabytes of free memory on your |
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| 29 | system before running the C<make> command. |
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| 30 | |
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| 31 | For much more information on building perl -- for example, on how to |
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| 32 | change the default installation directory -- see F<INSTALL>. |
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| 33 | |
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| 34 | =head2 Failures during C<make test> |
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| 35 | |
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| 36 | =over 4 |
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| 37 | |
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| 38 | =item op/lexassign.t |
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| 39 | |
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| 40 | This test may fail when first run after building perl. It does not |
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| 41 | fail subsequently. The cause is unknown. |
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| 42 | |
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| 43 | =item pragma/warnings.t |
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| 44 | |
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| 45 | Test 257 fails due to a failure to warn about attempts to read from a |
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| 46 | filehandle which is a duplicate of stdout when stdout is attached to a |
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| 47 | pipe. The output of the test contains a block comment which discusses |
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| 48 | a different failure, not applicable to MachTen. |
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| 49 | |
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| 50 | The root of the problem is that Machten does not assign a file type to |
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| 51 | either end of a pipe (see L<stat>), resulting, among other things |
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| 52 | in Perl's C<-p> test failing on file descriptors belonging to pipes. |
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| 53 | As a result, perl becomes confused, and the test for reading from a |
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| 54 | write-only file fails. I am reluctant to patch perl to get around |
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| 55 | this, as it's clearly an OS bug (about which Tenon has been informed), |
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| 56 | and limited in its effect on practical Perl programs. |
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| 57 | |
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| 58 | =back |
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| 59 | |
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| 60 | =head2 Using external modules |
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| 61 | |
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| 62 | If warnings are enabled with Perl's C<-w> command-line flag, you are |
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| 63 | likely to see warnings when using external modules containing XS |
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| 64 | (compiled) code: |
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| 65 | |
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| 66 | Subroutine DynaLoader::dl_error redefined at /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0/powerpc-machten/DynaLoader.pm line 93. |
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| 67 | |
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| 68 | This is a harmless consequence of the static linking used for MachTen |
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| 69 | perl. You can suppress the warnings by using the more modern |
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| 70 | C<-Mwarnings> instead of the traditional C<-w>. (See L<perllexwarn>.) |
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| 71 | |
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| 72 | =head2 Building external modules |
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| 73 | |
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| 74 | To add an external module to perl, build in the normal way, which |
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| 75 | is documented in L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>, or which can be driven |
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| 76 | automatically by the CPAN module (see L<CPAN>), which is part of the |
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| 77 | standard distribution. If wou want to install a |
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| 78 | module contains XS code (C or C++ source which compiles to object code |
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| 79 | for linking with perl), you will have to replace your perl binary with |
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| 80 | a new version containing the new statically-linked object module. The |
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| 81 | build process tells you how to do this. |
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| 82 | |
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| 83 | There is a gotcha, however, which users usually encounter immediately |
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| 84 | they respond to CPAN's invitation to C<install Bundle::CPAN>. When |
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| 85 | installing a I<bundle> -- a group of modules which together achieve |
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| 86 | some particular purpose, the installation process for later modules in |
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| 87 | the bundle tends to assume that earlier modules have been fully |
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| 88 | installed and are available for use. This is not true on a |
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| 89 | statically-linked system for earlier modules which contain XS code. |
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| 90 | As a result the installation of the bundle fails. The work-around is |
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| 91 | not to install the bundle as a one-shot operation, but instead to see |
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| 92 | what modules it contains, and install these one-at-a-time by hand in |
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| 93 | the order given. |
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| 94 | |
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| 95 | =head1 AUTHOR |
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| 96 | |
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| 97 | Dominic Dunlop <domo@computer.org> |
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| 98 | |
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| 99 | =head1 DATE |
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| 100 | |
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| 101 | Version 1.0 2000-03-22 |
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